Broadband speed guide

How fast is your internet access?

Internet providers in Spain usually offer 10Mbit/s connections but the actual speed you’re having could be around 8-9 Mbit/s. This is because of the technology in use, but if you’re having a 50-60% or less of the speed that you’re paying then there is something wrong.

One way to measure the actual speed of your connection is to use some tests around the internet. Some internet providers might have their own test-sites but it is usually better to use 2 or 3 different sites to measure the speed of your connection.

Download & upload

When you connect to the internet, the download speed is the pace at which data (websites, programmes, music etc) is transferred from another computer to yours. The opposite of downloading is uploading, which is sending data to another computer.

Usually we do not say “download” for a single web page (for example when you open this page on your computer). When we say we downloaded something, it is normally a bigger piece of information, like data or a computer program.

In Spain download rate is usually from 6 Mb to 20Mb. In some areas (Madrid, Barcelona) it is possible to have fiber connections where download rate could be 100Mb.

Ping
Ping is a computer network administration utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network and to measure the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer.

Movistar speed test
This test is only for Movistar clients, but if you’re having problems with your Movistar connection speed you can use their test among other. Movistar customer service can also see results of this test so if you’re having problems with speed better to use this one.http://www.movistar.es/particulares/test-de-velocidad/

Not as fast as you were expecting

If you’re having problems with your connection before calling the customer service you could try few tests:

Close all other applications using the internet such as email and instant messaging programs

Hi. I have an apartment in Estepona and we pay for Movistar’s up to 10Mb broadband service. We are only receiving 0.5Mb download speed and I have rung Movistar on countless occasions and get a different reason each time and promises that it will be sorted.

It never has been and most recently I called them and they claimed that up to 10Mb didn’t guarantee anything and that 0.5Mb was about what should be expected for my location.

Reading what you say above suggests that is wrong. Any idea what I can do?

Hi – I have rtri3d to run the movistar speed test but I get a message saying that security settings have prevented this test from running – can you please advise me what I have to do to allow this test on my computer ?
Many thanks
Eunice

Hi Barry. I live in Marbella Hills Club and have exactly the same problem with Movistar. I’ve been told there’s nothing they can do. My community manager says that Vodafone may be better but I don’t. Want to make the same mistake again.

Movistar is Telefonica and they own and service your telephone lines. If you are with them they should give you the fastest speeds that are possible in your area. Don’t think by changing to another internet provider that your speed will improve, it wont.
Interesting article here:https://www.facebook.com/pinpointspain?ref=hl

I am getting the same problems as the others in Los Alamos, Torremolinos. I was getting up to 2.5Mbps but in the evenings it was going down to 0.07Mbps, so I complained to my service provider, which is Telitec. Telitec took it up with Movistar who said the best I could get is 1Mbps and have now adjusted the equipment in the telephone exchange to give me a max of 1Mbps. Tried to get this changed as I am paying for up to 4Mbps but no joy so far to get things changed back to where I was.

Anyone got any suggestions to get things improved, I have been trying with Telitec for the last 2 weeks or so!

Hi,i live in Gijon Asturias I’ve been three years in Spain, It’s very hard in Spain to get a company which stick to their words, and works properly. I’ve got in my internet contract 14 to 20Mbs, but I’ve done lots of speed test and I never past 2Mb. So good luck to everybody and lets hope this country will get better…..

and thank you for your comment. You don’t tell what is your internet provider but I suppose it’s Movistar. Please, correct me if I’m wrong.

The difference on your network speed could be result of overload in Movistar network during certain times. For example, during the evening between 19.00 – 22.00 there are just too many users and the capacity of the network can not handle so much traffic.

Movistar, or other providers, generally won’t do anything concerning these issues as they don’t want to admit the problem is on their network.

Changing to another internet provider might not improve the situation at all. If you contact customer service of another provider they’ll promise you 6Mb, 10Mb or 12Mb but unfortunately the actual speed could be much less as it’s in your case.

There are exceptions too and we have some clients that have had a Movistar connection (actual seed being less than 6Mb) and when they’ve changed to another provider the actual speed is over 20Mb.

I can only comment that the internet connection speed will probably be between 1-20 Mb depending where you live. If you ask the same question directly from providers they’ll “guarantee” that you’ll get at least 10 Mb but this however is not always true.

Unfortunately there is no best company in Spain as every provider has their problems. Movistar can probably offer the most reliable service, Jazztel can offer the speediest connection, Orange the best customer service etc.

Hi. I have a house at Marina del Este between La Herradura and Almuñecar(east of Malaga), and I plan to have an internet connection. Is it possible to watch tv at the speed that eg. Moviestar provides, and is it possible to pause the connection when I am in Denmark?
Thanks and best regards Jørgen

We live near to Algeciras in Andalucía, our telephone/internet/TV provider is Telitec.
We have a standard telephone line (not fibre optic) and are generally receiving between 4 & 6 Mb, it does however reduce at peak times to about 4Mb. The internet system operates well however at peak times the internet TV pauses when operating but generally a good service for Spain.
We would recommend Telitec as a service provider.
Regards
Roy

Hi, i’m looking to move from the West Sussex to Almuñécar and would like to know what broadband services are available. I work in the IT sector so fast internet (up and down) is important to me. If fibre optic is not available, what is the next best service and is there any way of know when fibre optic may be available?
Cheers, Sam

I live in Guardamar del Segura near Alicante and would like to know what internet speed I can expect for broadband. At the moment I have Wi-Fi and only get 1.7 speed at best. Not enough for tv streaming. Will it be better with a fixed line broadband?

How can I tell which company has there own lines in the exchange I am in Fuerterventura my neighbours get a faster speed than myself but use the same cables, movistar say that I get the best they can give, I am think of moving from them but need a company that has there own lines or the problem will persist.
Thanks

i have been offered broadband by a local company in Cancelada where we have an apartment.
I have been told that the normal broadband is too slow to support tv streaming. They have offered 4g but at a cost of €60 a month, what would you advise?

3-6 Mb broadband connection should be fine with tv streams.. The faster, the better of course. However, it depends of the area if any provider can guarantee ~6 Mb connection for you. The monthly cost for a broadband connection is around 40-50 euros.

4G could be an alternative if there’s no availability for a fibre or for a broadband connection. You should ask if there’s any usage limit as there might be 5 Gb limit and tv-streams eat lot of the data capacity.

Now in more than half of houses in Spain you can get 300 mbits/s but in my case I live in a village with 12 mbits/s and they´re installing 30 mbits/s and in a year or two probably 200 or 300 mbits/s fibre will be available.

wE live in Marbella Real and we have recently had internet Tv installed-BBC and ITV etc,trouble is everything is unwatchable because of mega buffering…
Our router is 3G and problem is do not know if superfast 4g has been installed in this urbanization as yet?
Iam a complete technophobe and only know that other people outside our complex have told me that I will not receive a seamless reception of the U.K. channels until the 4g system has been installed throughout the complex-furthermore even if it has I would still be obliged to replace my recently purchased 3G router with a 4g one.
Any answers?

Can you advise whether fibre optic broadband is available in the jardines de calahonda fase 4 urbanisation in calahonda, Mijas Costa. If it is what is the guaranteed minimum download speed. Regards rob brown

Hi,
i am hiring an house in Calp for vacation. Internet via telitec. Internet speed 1.7. But i cannot use streaming to see Belgian TV !! Is this normal ? (message i receive is : “No streaming possible via this network “)

I have moved to Torrecuevas in the campo a few minutes from Almuñecar and wonder if anyone can advise if there is fibre optic here and which company can offer me adequate speeds for satellite tv and internet connection? At present I have Euronosat but they are expensive and when using more than half of the data, the speed decreases and we can only watch tv and not send emails during peak times. Thanks for any info in advance.